Rascals Race Out In Front

The early leaders in Division Three are Stanley Street Rascals who have now extended their unbeaten start to the season to 3 wins from 3 games with their latest win coming over club colleagues Stanley Street 'D'. Liam Stead, Thomas Gladwin and Ellis Spacey all continued their early season form for the Rascals as all they all beat Glyn Williams and Diesel Webb to win two games each but all three Rascals all lost to the unbeaten Andrew Agnew who remains unbeaten so far this season. Spacey and Gladwin then teamed up to take the doubles to cement a very good 6-3 victory.
Whilst the Rascals were enjoying their latest win their closest rivals On-Line Elks were going down to Ryton Park Dragons with Dragon's Luke Barraclough doing most of the damage with a hard fought hat trick of wins. Barraclough was well supported by his team mate Justin Flear who was making his first appearance of the season adding two more wins with Lee Banton adding a further win. The scorers for Elks were Jonno Blood with two and Glenn Gillgrass with one. Barraclough and Connor Bettley paired up to take the doubles against Blood and Gillgrass in what turned out to be a cracker of a doubles rubber, finally winning it in the 5th set 13-11.
Stanley Street Cypriots finally got their season up and running with a good win over Ryton Park Falcons, a win that saw them shoot up the league table into 4th place. Tom Parker was the back bone of the Cypriots victory registering an impressive hat trick which included a terrific game with the Falcon's Jordan Potter that went the distance before Parker finally edged the match 11-8 in the fifth and deciding set. Parker was well backed up on the night by team mate Mitchell Radford who won two games which ironically included another 5 set win over Jordan Potter who on any other night may well have walked away winning all three of his matches. Potter did finally manage to claim a victory beating Graham Stent. Brian Hall was making his debut for the Falcons and he marked with two good wins on the night but it wasn't enough as the Cypriots finally ran out 7-3 winners.
It's still tight at the top of Division Two and with only 3 points separating the top 5 teams it's going to be a fascinating Division that could go all the way down to the wire to decide who finally claims the title. Manton Nomads just managed to cling on to the top spot with a 7-3 win over local rivals Manton Sports. Steve Elkin making his first start of the season for Nomads soon found his feet and was leading from the front by claiming a hat trick of wins with Jayden Budworth adding a further two wins (losing out to Keith Smith) with Richard Robinson adding a solo win over Smith. John Lowde and Alan Wilson each won one for Sports with Robinson and Elkin taking the doubles to cement the victory.
Hot on the heels of the leaders are DTH Redlands X-Youth who jumped up the table to be level on points with Nomad's with a 7-3 win over their club colleagues The Rookies, their win leaves them just one set worse off in 2nd place. Clive Eden had a good night taking all three with Jeff Reay adding two wins of his own with Ewan Pickersgill adding a solo effort. Alan Keeling for the Rookies played well winning two games and Derek Piper got himself on the score card with a win over Pickersgill.
Unbeaten sides Ryton Park Eagles and Stanley Street 'B' could have both gone top if they could have managed a win over each other but instead fought out a terrific 5-5 draw in a pulsating contest. Street 'B's Nigel Stent maintained his 100% start to the season with another hat trick which was paramount to Street clinching a draw with both Adam Hamilton and Ralph Rodda adding solo wins over Keith Swift. For the Eagles both Brian Hall and John Hallgarth each won two matches each before teaming up in the doubles to beat Stent and Rodda to grab a share of the spoils but perhaps the match will be remembered for the singles match between Rodda and Hallgarth. With the rubber delicately poised at 2 games each, Rodda raced into an early lead in the deciding set and soon found himself 10-2 up and on the brink of victory only to see his lead start to slip away and before he knew it Hallgarth had dragged himself back into the set by incredibly levelling it at 10-10 and taking it into deuce! The drama didn't end there as the battling Hallgarth eventually won the decider 13-11 to leave Rodda wondering just how he managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory!
Other Division Two Result: Stanley Street 'C' 9 Ryton Par Cougars 1
Division One Results: DTH Redlands Joggers 7 Manton Misfits 3, DTH Redlands Fluffy Toys 6 Ryton Park Adders 4, DTH Redlands Roosters 7 MBE 3, Manton Tigers 0 Stanley Street 'A' 10